Remember how crazed and confused the media became a year ago when Notre Dame’s football program rose to a No. 1 ranking and was headed to a national title contest?

Consider this a reference point of perspective on just how dynamic the Irish brand had re-become 25 years ago amid a much less frenetic media surge:

On the same Saturday in October that Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series Game 1 home run, the fourth-ranked Irish upset No. 1 and defending national champion Miami, 31-30, after the Hurricanes missed on a two-point conversion with less than a minute left. The game, captioned by the media as “The Catholics against the Convicts” and preceded by a fight between the teams in the entrance tunnel at Notre Dame Stadium, would snap the Hurricanes’ 36-game winning streak.

So when Sports Illustrated came out the next week, the main cover shot of the Oct. 24 issue was of Irish quarterback Tony Rice with the headline “Notre Dame Is Back!” The photo in the top right corner, much smaller, was of Gibson with the reduced-sized banner: “The Dodgers get the jump.”

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving 1988, a matchup emerged that had never happened before - 10-0 and top-ranked Notre Dame arriving at the Coliseum to face 10-0 and second-ranked USC, still the only time in their storied rivalry that a 1 vs. 2 matchup has materialized.

That’s a far place from where the Trojans and Irish sit today going into their 85th meeting (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Channel 4). But the circumstances around that game a quarter-century ago - from Irish coach Lou Holtz suspending star players Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks that morning, to Trojan quarterback and Heisman candidate Rodney Peete having laryngitis as a lingering effect of having the measles - were the kind of stuff today’s social media would have created into a mountain of heated conversation and mounting controversy.

In the recently released book “Unbeatable: Notre Dame’s 1988 Championship and the Last Great College Football Season” (St. Martin’s Press, $26.99), author and Irish grad Jerry Barca devotes 25 of his 330 pages to that one game as he remembers, as an 11-year-old, watching the ABC telecast being called by Keith Jackson and Bob Griese.

The Irish’s 27-10 win was basically sealed by halftime, as defenders Frank Stams, Jeff Alm, Chris Zorich, Wes Pritchett, George Streeter, Todd Lyght and Stan Smagala did most of the major damage – and most of that directly on Peete, who wasn’t able to audibilize when he saw a nine-man rush coming at him and played most of the game with a separated shoulder.

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“I honestly had some of the most fun in the book reporting on that game,” Barca said. “There was a ton of material I didn’t know about. Why (Irish defensive coordinator) Barry Alvarez decided to blitz so much had to be from information he got from newspaper clips, because there was no YouTube video for him to see how Peete was handling the media coverage all week while battling laryngitis.

“You look at how sports is covered today with sabermetrics and yadda, yadda, yadda, but the game came down to the simple strategy of knowing Peete couldn’t call audible when he saw nine coming at him – which wasn’t on any of the Notre Dame game films, so they had no idea it would even be coming.”

Barca also said in separate interviews he did with Rice and Holtz, he was surprised both were upset to this day about a call Jackson made early in the contest – insisting Rice stepped beyond the back line of the end zone “but they (the referees) didn’t see it” before completing a 55-yard pass to Rocket Ismail in the first quarter.

As it was revealed in replays, Jackson mistakenly thought the paint in the end zone beyond the Trojan logo was the back line, and he corrected himself twice.

Barca also found new information on the background to what led to the suspensions of Watters and Brooks, as they were late to meetings and team dinners, the last straw after they lost their borrowed car when going to a mall in Newport Beach. The two were sent home and ended up watching the game from a restaurant at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, missing their connecting flight to South Bend.

The context of that game as Holtz and Notre Dame won the national title and reinvigorated the rivalry with USC – even though that marked the Irish’s sixth win in a row over the Trojans in what would be an 11-game series win streak -- could very well have provided the seed that spurred NBC to consider structuring an exclusive TV rights deal with the school.

That materialized three seasons later in 1991. Last April, the two extended the contract by 10 years, through 2025, at a reported $15 million annually.

And right after that Notre Dame-USC game, Rice was on the cover of Sports Illustrated again. This time, the Dec. 5 issue headline read: “Great Day for the Irish.”

“It was better when (SI) made definitive calls on the cover instead of regionalizing them, because it meant more,” Barca said, especially in reference to the Irish-over-Gibson call. “Plus, it made me think our obsession with football isn’t really a new phenomenon.”

RECORD, PAUSE, DELETE

Gauging the media’s high- and low-level marks of the week, and what’s ahead:

YOU MAKE THE CALL

The speculation can begin as to who might emerge as the new twosome for the Dodgers’ abbreviated road TV packages as sources confirm Eric Collins and Steve Lyons will no longer be included. With the Dodgers-owned SportsNet L.A. channel shaping up for a 2014 launch – and recently approved by MLB – Vin Scully’s agreement to return for a 65th season has yet to be fully ironed out, but it will likely include him going solo for nine innings on home games and include some road contests to be determined. If your new analyst choices include Orel Hershiser (his deal with ESPN is up for renewal), Eric Karros (two more years left on his deal at Fox) and Kevin Kennedy (embedded as the KLAC “Dodger Talk” host), all three have pretty comfortable situations with restricted travel, which plays into a lifestyle decision. They are more inclined to listen about a post-Scully scenario and a Guggenheim compensation package when the time is right. With that, why not consider current Dodgers utility man Jerry Hairston Jr., who has shown interest in getting into broadcasting if/when he retires? As for play-by-play guys with local ties, Josh Suchon got some valuable experience for the team’s Triple-A Albuquerque franchise last season. His former KABC “Dodger Talk” co-host, Ken Levine, who called games for the Orioles and Mariners, was also considered during the last go-around. We also have high regards for Jeff Lasky, who did seven years of minor-league play-by-play and works for the San Diego Padres’ flagship station XX 1090. The last search also uncovered the possibility of Jeanne Zelasko, who did internet broadcasts for the team a few years ago.

A MUTED CALL

Bob Costas could have a much greater impact with his “Sunday Night Football” essay on Washington’s insistence on using the nickname “Redskins” had his three-minute, 360-word piece not come off as another professorial lecture that likely went right over the heads of viewers before he got to this punch line: “ ‘Redskins’ can’t possibly honor a heritage, or noble character trait, nor can it possibly be considered a neutral term. It’s an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent. It is fair to say that for a long time now, and certainly in 2013, no offense has been intended. But, if you take a step back, isn’t it clear to see how offense ‘might’ legitimately be taken?” Nice message, wrong medium. When you see the transcript, it sure looks provocative, especially when your opening line mentions there’s no reason to believe that anyone “harbors animus toward Native Americans.” But in the communication of the sentiments, it’s far less effective when delivered as an oral academic thesis.